Shadowing Practice: How I Actually Learn 6+ Languages At Once - Learn English Speaking with YouTube

So trust me, the best way to study a language is...

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So trust me, the best way to study a language is...

Hi, my name is Kat,

I speak six languages in all different levels,

and I am telling you this in advance

because I know some of you are going to be disappointed when you find out I'm not fluent in all of them,

but I still think they count.

So how do I speak six?

Well, I'm nothing special, in fact I'm as normal as you.

because it took my whole life to reach this stage.

So I'm not using magical methods.

I was not born with a crazy talent.

I was just nerding out for 23 years straight.

And now I kind of have tips for language learning without moving to that country.

So without further ado, step one, find your motivation.

Yes, a bit cliche, but this is where everything starts.

I was luckily raised bilingual,

so I did have some advantages,

but it was still consistent practice and exposure that brought me here.

And I can prove it because my English is way better than my brother's.

So yes, you should have fun and find a way not to get sick of it.

So where did I find my spark?

Well, first of all, it's cool.

It was 2014.

I already spoke Korean and English.

And I just realized how much access I'm getting to different information compared to my peers who only spoke Korean.

I discovered Duolingo then and of course I googled languages that is spoken by most people.

I simply chose Spanish because it seemed easier than Chinese.

Also, I had the talent of...

Number two, fangirling literature or media.

I grew up watching Hollywood movies,

Nickelodeon, Disney Channel, music videos from Vivo,

and my mom also gave me a lot of things to read and watch,

like picture books, Shakespeare, TED Talks,

documentaries, theater, musicals, etc. I also had phases in my life where I had micro-obsessions like Japanese dramas,

Taiwanese rom-coms, BBC series, Spanish or Mexican series on Netflix,

old chansons français, reggaeton, J-rock, Italian operas.

And I've also dreamt of becoming a philosopher in Germany when I was 14.

Don't ask me why.

Number three and most effective is celebrity crushes.

The world is full of beautiful and talented people,

and for that minimal possibility of going out on a date with any of them,

I just studied their language.

What can I say?

Hopeless romantic.

Or you can fall in love with a city during your trip and imagine living there.

I guess that's a more practical reason, right?

So, now we have the why,

let's go and get the work done.

Step 2.

Learn the basics.

First and foremost, learn how to read.

Yes, the alphabets and the phonology,

because once you become literate,

anything can be your study material from then on.

So one thing

that I always look for in a study material is whether they have the phonological rules properly explained in the first chapter.

You want to do this correctly because this will determine how you sounded that language.

So if they get this part right,

you can definitely trust the material.

Number two, pronouns, basic verbs, basic nouns.

For this step, honestly, you can even use Duolingo.

You just need to know the most commonly used words to get a hint of sentence structures.

For example, in Dutch, I am a woman would be ik ben een frau.

Then you can learn ik ben een meisje, ik ben Catherine.

Now, step three is only for those who are learning the languages that are similar to the ones you already know.

Studying the grammar skeleton.

I normally would encourage you to start speaking first

but sometimes it just makes sense for instance i already speak german i do make a lot of mistakes

but i do understand the grammar structure

so i started dutch with grammar i just googled is it

a gendered language what kind of genders are there what kind

of articles do they use how are the verbs grouped

and how are they conjugated what are the present tense conjugation

rules blah blah blah then i quickly could start speaking and writing just by learning the equivalent words.

Now if you have no idea what all of those meant you can just move on to the next step.

Step three, use it and expose yourself to it or simply I just say live it.

I personally prefer speaking or writing anything

that you can before trying to understand things

because to fully understand you need examples and for the examples to stick in your head you have to make mistakes.

So what I do is just pick one book to use

it as a guideline to teach myself all the necessary grammar points based on its curriculum,

but always experiment beyond what I learned.

I divide it into five skill areas in the order of importance.

Number one, speaking.

Yes, weirdly, I would start speaking first.

Find anyone to talk to and start using it.

Annoy your friends, partner, or family,

but you can also go to language exchange events.

Use apps like Tandem or Bumble Friends.

One thing I also love to do is when I go travel solo,

I just look at the streets

and on the bench there will be at least one elderly person who looks kind of bored.

I just talk to them.

Ask for directions or ask for recommendations about the city.

Then they end up showing huge smiles and share all the stories behind the city's history,

but also they will speak to you in a way that's closest to proper grammar.

But if you don't have anyone, talk to yourself.

Pretend like you're actually talking to someone or take vlogs even if you won't post.

When you forget a word,

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you can always use your native language to fill in,

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but try to record yourself so you can come back to study it.

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Or I use AI.

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I can just rant, have a chat,

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or do a roleplay even.

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In the middle of the conversation,

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I also ask for definitions,

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grammar explanations, synonyms, antonyms, something more colloquial or formal or polite or even Gen Z.

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Sometimes they can be inaccurate or outdated,

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but then I just write a short thread post and ask native speakers if this is right.

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Here's the prompt I use when I start the conversation,

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and here is the prompt I use to review.

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Area 2.

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Listening.

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Listening can be anything.

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Music, cartoons, podcasts, films, documentaries,

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theaters, musicals, vlogs, ASMR, news, anything.

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And whenever you're listening to something, shadow it.

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Shadowing is just saying the same thing that you hear and trying to mimic the native speaker's accent or pronunciation intonation.

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I never took this seriously,

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but I realized I've just been doing it as a habit.

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And whenever you learn something useful, write it down.

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And when you write things,

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always read it out loud.

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You're probably never going to check those notes again, but it still helps.

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If it's a video material that you're using,

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I usually watch it three times.

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Let's say you don't know the plot yet.

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Then I would start with my native language audio and target language subtitles,

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so I'd get the plot but also pick up a few words.

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Then I switch to target language audio and native language subtitles.

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Some people would say don't ever use native language subtitles,

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but I think I'm disciplined enough to ignore the subtitles and only peek when I don't understand something.

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And finally, you can watch it with target language audio and target language subtitles.

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I recommend using subtitles unless you're trying to appreciate the aesthetics of the cinema,

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because even if it's just a few seconds of flash,

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it's technically reading and it tells you how to spell things.

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And the key point here is to use context clues to understand and pick up sentences, not words.

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Learning things in chunks actually make more sense when you try to use them.

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If you're a music lover,

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if you're a music lover like me,

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I would also use songs.

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Yes, you can write down the lyrics and study that too,

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but also I sing and rap.

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You're not trying to perform in front of anyone,

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you can just do it at home,

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in your shower or anything.

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And it actually helps my pronunciation and speaking.

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Area 3 is writing.

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You can write anything from poems,

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journals, to academic articles if you want to challenge yourself.

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But one thing you should promise me is not to use AI.

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I only use paper dictionaries when I'm writing and since it's so much work to do,

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I never forget the word when I learn through it.

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But if you're writing an academic article,

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I do recommend using online thesaurus or websites like Reverso.

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And only after you finish- Oop,

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forgot to wear this again.

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Where was I?

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Uh, only after you finish writing you can use AI just to review it.

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Still, you should reread it yourself,

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read it out loud before you go to AI and try to see if there's anything that sounds weird.

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If you're practicing multiple languages like me,

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I just chose the days of the week to use certain languages when I write.

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For example, last year I was focusing on three languages,

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French, German, and Spanish.

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So I used to journal in French on Mondays and Thursdays,

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German, Tuesdays and Fridays, Spanish on Wednesdays and Saturdays.

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Sunday, I just chose anything or gave me a little break.

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Area four, reading.

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First, use picture books.

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I am a huge fan of Dr. Seuss.

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That is how I learned English and Spanish.

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And those books have vibrant illustrations and rhymes in every sentence,

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so it's the best way to have fun with languages.

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But if it's too babyish for you,

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maybe try other children's books like Mother Goose,

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Fairy Tales, Fables, or other stories that you already know.

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I often google short stories in French or short stories in German and just go through different free websites.

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But once you reach a certain level,

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I believe that reading is the only area that you can focus on the content,

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not about specific grammar rules.

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So I prefer non-fiction reading about the cultures

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because at some point you're going to talk with native speakers

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and cultures are so crucial but

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if you're a fantasy fan of course novels are fine i

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would also read news articles columns cookbooks as a foodie or

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if you're traveling street signs or

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if you trained your algorithm well enough you can just scroll through threads

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but again

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when you're reading something always read it out loud number five

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the final area is grammar yes we hate this thing we need a textbook to do some exercises

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but it really helps the goal is only to remind yourself not to get obsessed with it

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so just try writing five or more sentences per grammar point

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that you learned that day and

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that will be more than enough this is why i prefer to stick to one book brand

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or publisher from a1 to c2 because

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if i switch books in the middle then there are repeated topics

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or mixed orders of grammar points

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so today i want to introduce you to this ebook

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that not only helps you build a good foundation

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but lets you speak from day one it comes with a compact ebook that that has pronunciation guides everywhere,

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plus a workbook where you can practice with daily conversational sentences.

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I've tried using paper textbooks that are so heavy and thick,

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and also ebook platforms for college courses,

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which were over $200 per level.

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Of course the material was good,

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but I felt stuck in that slow-paced curriculum,

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and the book trapped me with so many basic grammar practices with sentences that I would never say.

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I'm personally studying French B2 with Read to Speak,

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And I think it really gives you all the essentials for

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you to start speaking in all different levels from A1 to C2.

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You can also get 15% off with my code,

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so watch till the end.

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Step four, the last step, is staying consistent.

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Or I want to say,

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fake it till you make it.

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So I don't really have a routine,

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but it's just living life constantly code switching in my brain.

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I think that it's actually the best aspect of learning languages as a hobby,

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because you don't have to make time for it.

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You can just do anything you normally do in another language.

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For example, sing in the shower in French.

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Cook something off a book in Spanish.

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Watch a show or cartoons in German.

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Scroll through and share memes that are in Japanese.

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But to give you some tips,

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I have some rituals that have become my habit.

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When I just wake up in the morning,

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I turn on this German podcast that I can shadow.

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On the metro, I listen to a news podcast in French.

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When I'm rotting in bed,

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I watch whatever show on Netflix in my other target languages.

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Oh, also when I go out,

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I leave my Japanese notebook open on my desk so when I return,

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then I can immediately spend half an hour on Japanese before doing anything else.

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So trust me, the best way to study a language is to live it and love it.

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Hope this video helps your language learning journey.

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And those who stay till the end, thank you so much.

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Get your discount with my code CAT15.

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Alright guys, love you.

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Bye!

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What is the Shadowing Technique?

Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.

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Speak English fluently using the Shadowing technique. Listen to native YouTube videos, repeat sentence by sentence, and build real pronunciation and fluency — used by IELTS learners worldwide.

Shadowing Practice: How I Actually Learn 6+ Languages At Once - Learn English Speaking with YouTube

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Shadowing Practice: How I Actually Learn 6+ Languages At Once - Learn English Speaking with YouTube

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Why practice speaking with this video?

Grammar & Expressions in Context

Common Pronunciation Traps

What is the Shadowing Technique?